How to Unblock Instagram at School

Next download and install the VPN software onto the device(s) you want to unblock Instagram on

Open the VPN software and connect to any US or European-based server location

Instagram will now be unblocked

If on your mobile device Instagram is still blocked, go to your app setting then clear the Instagram cache and force stop it -- then the app will be unblocked

How to Unblock Instagram at School

in more detail:

NOTE: To jump straight to the step-by-step solution, click here and you will skip down the page to it.

NOTE: The following guide on how to unblock Instagram at school includes using a VPN. With so many VPN providers available these days, I personally reviewed the best out there and decided to use ExpressVPN. Check it out here:

So you want to know how to unblock Instagram at school? I feel you. I had the exact same problem at my university when I turned up to class one day only to discover that somehow the school had completely blocked anyone from accessing Instagram, along with a bunch of other social networks we all regularly visited through the school day.

However, when this happened to me the first time, I -- unlike my classmates -- was determined to figure out a solution on how to unblock Instagram at school once and for all. "If they can block it, then surely I can unblock it", was my thinking.

And I was right! It took me a bit of research and trying out some different methods, but I eventually determined a solution that works 100%, regardless of why or how your school has blocked Instagram.

It turns out that unblocking Instagram at school is actually really straight forward, once you know how! So the moment I figured out the best method, I decided to put together this quick little guide so that you can unblock Instagram, too.

This whole process will take you just 5 minutes to get setup and unblock Instagram at school 100% effectively.

Why is Instagram not Available in School?

Before diving straight to the solution, it helps to understand why Instagram has been blocked in your school.

Obviously the main reason is that your school board has decided that too many kids are going on Instagram and not paying attention or focusing enough on the actual work in front of them. Another reason may be that some cyber bullying has occurred through Instagram that your teachers have been made aware of, and have thus decided to block access to Instagram as a result of this.

With all that said, I firmly believe that simply denying access to something is not the most effective way to make students perform better or motivate them to focus on their grades. Why? Well, blocking Instagram is basically saying to students, "We, the teachers, believe that none of you have the self-control to use Instagram sensibly and sparingly during class time, so we've taken it away completely -- rather than giving you the chance to prove that you are mature enough to use it in a way that doesn't negatively impact your performance in class."

However, my personal opinion means literally zero in this guide. What does matter, is that my opinion lead me to find an effective and secure solution to unblock Instagram in school once and for all.

How is Instagram Being Blocked in School?

I managed to figure out a fool-proof solution for this by understanding exactly how my school (and all schools) technically implemented the Instagram block.

After researching for quite a while on this, I eventually determined that 99% of schools place this block on the school's main intranet, meaning that they only had to place the block once on the school's main server(s), and the block then automatically happens on all school computers and every student's personal device as soon as they connect to the school's internet.

This was actually good news when I figured this out. Why? Well, this meant that it is essentially your IP address that is making the Instagram block happen.

You see, your IP address is a numerical representation of the network you are on, and each device (computer, laptop, smartphone, etc) has a unique one that links that device to the internet through the intranet servers that I mentioned earlier.

Thus, all you need to do to unblock Instagram at school is connect to your school's internet through a private server connection that will give you a different IP address -- and thus bypass the Instagram block.

How do you do this? By using a Virtual Private Network (VPN, for short.) This sounds complex, but it's actually super simple. I'll show you how to do this right now, in less than five minutes:

How to Use a VPN to Unblock Instagram at School

Step 1: Sign up for VPN

As I mentioned at the start of this guide -- there are a lot of VPN providers available that vary in quality and price. So after I personally reviewed the best-rated ones around, I decided to go with ExpressVPN as it offered the best value for my (small) budget. So I'll use it as the example while taking you through the setup steps below.

Firstly you want to go to ExpressVPN's website, select the plan you want, then confirm your account setup via email. You will see that a 30-day money back guarantee is given when you join, which is great.

Once you've setup your account, the next step is to get the software onto the device you use Instagram at school on.

Step 2: Download & Install VPN

I assume you want to use Instagram on your smartphone, so the best way to do this quickest is to just go to your phone's app store and search for "ExpressVPN". You will see the free dedicated app show up top. Click on it and download + install the app onto your smartphone.

If you want to access Instagram on any other device, then you can see in the download area on the ExpressVPN website that you can use the VPN on basically any device you would ever want to.

Once the VPN app is installed, all that you need to do now is choose a server and connect.

Step 3: Connect to Any Server on VPN

You will see once you open up the VPN, that it is stupidly simple to use. You don't need any technical expertise at all to get it setup and connected.

All you need to do now is select a server to join. You will be presented with a bunch of different server locations. These are private servers that you will connect to your school's internet through (rather than directly, which is where Instagram is blocked on). So it really doesn't matter what server location you choose.

If you want the fastest speeds of internet, then it helps to choose a server location in your country/city. However, like I said, you could choose a location on the other side of the world and it will still work.

Here's an example of me connecting to my ExpressVPN app on my smartphone:

Step 4: Enjoy Unblocked Instagram at School

Then once you've connected -- that it! You will now be able to access Instagram as much as you want at school.

The reason I recommend using a VPN for this solution is because when you use a VPN; the second you are connected you are given a super sophisticated level of privacy protection. All of your online activity is heavily encrypted to "military-grade" level, which means that it is practically impossible to trace back anything you do online to your identity or physical location.

So your school will have no idea that you've connected to their internet through a VPN, and are happily browsing Instagram to your heart's content!

Conclusion

So there you go. A quick and 100% effective secure solution on how to unblock Instagram at school in under 5 minutes.

If you want to check out some other VPN providers, then here are the top five VPN services I narrowed down my choice to when reviewing the best ones out there. All of these will allow you to unblock Instagram at school successfully and privately:

Hey Zaryiah, thanks for reaching out! Sorry to hear you are having issues getting access to Instagram. Have you gone through the process of installing and using a VPN on your smartphone to bypass any “blocks” placed on your internet connection? If you have done this but are still having issues getting access to Instagram, definitely let me know and I’ll do my best to help you ASAP.

Hey Hannah. Ah ok, that’s unfortunately a barrier you cannot cross with this. When wanting to use Instagram at school, we assume that you are wanting to unblock it on your personal smartphone. Then you can easily download the VPN, install it and launch it on your phone then easily bypass the school’s internet block on Instagram.

Unfortunately 99% of schools have administrator blocks on their personal desktop computers, which will restrict the downloading/installing of software by students without admin access.

Thanks for giving your feedback. Many schools do choose to block access to the actual VPN websites in an attempt to stop students from downloading the VPN while on the school internet. However, you can use a simple proxy browser like https://hide.me/en/proxy (or any other by googling “free proxy browser”) to bypass your school’s blocks and thus access the VPN to download.

Hey Bryce, thanks for reaching out! There are indeed a few solid free VPN services. Check these out here: https://fried.com/vpn/best-free-vpn-2016/ — I will advise though, that what you save in cash; you lose in quality. This is why we always recommend choosing a top quality premium VPN, since it is these that have the revenue to produce a VPN service that has the level of privacy encryption to give you the most piece of mind on your data security.